FCC Comr. Martin said the Commission should continue to fight the...
FCC Comr. Martin said the Commission should continue to fight the courts and grant Title I regulatory status to DSL and cable broadband. In a Q&A session at a Charles Schwab telecom conference in Washington, Martin said the FCC…
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shouldn’t “give in” to the 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco. Despite the court ruling against the FCC’s Title I declaration that cable modems were an “information service,” Martin said the Commission should fight that ruling and also not declare DSL to be a “telecom,” as opposed to “information,” service. In the meantime, he said, the FCC could issue guidance on certain regulations, such as the status of law enforcement access, to give companies some certainty. But “the litigation may limit what we can do,” Martin said in regard to guidance. “We don’t have to give up the legal pursuit.” He said Title I regulatory status probably would allow the FCC to prevent the “net neutrality” concerns that some had raised. However, he said there had been no evidence that ISPs were blocking access to sites and that the FCC shouldn’t take action until such evidence was presented. Martin said in evaluating Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), the Commission should distinguish types of VoIP services. An Xbox videogame system that allows users to talk with one another probably shouldn’t have Enhanced 911 requirements, while one that functioned like traditional telephone service probably should.